The last decision of the Panel was to consult all Cornwall Councillors on the proposed scale of charges and 68 (out of 123) members have replied. Panel Chairman Andrew Wallis has posted on the subject and has (quite rightly) pointed out that he has sought to be as open as possible on this subject. Full marks to him for his post and for organising the consultation and keeping members generally informed on the subject.
I have a big issue with the proposed scale of parking charges - a point I made in my own response to the consultation. That is that Cornwall Council is trying to squeeze too much money out of parking and that all of the five charging schemes had the overall level of charges too high. I argued that if charges are set too high then people will simply not use council car parks. They will either park illegally on the streets creating lots of obstructions or they will avoid using town centre car parks altogether and simply shop at Tescos where parking is free (other supermarkets are available).
I also argued that the only proposal for a cheap first hour rate did not take into account the nuances needed for such a scheme and therefore could not be supported. I said that we needed a properly worked out 10p first hour scheme so we could make a reasoned decision.
Almost all of the recommendations made by councillors have been ignored since they appear to have been based on a lower overall income from parking. The report simply states:
"With the other budgetary constraints facing the Council it is felt that a reduction in car parking income is unlikely to be acceptable."
It is true that there is a genuine difference of opinion here. Some people will feel that the Council should be trying to boost local business by providing more affordable car parking whilst others will see different service priorities. The trouble with this report is that it closes off that debate.
One of the requests made by a number of members was for the retention of the North Cornwall Rover Ticket (and a similar ticket to be created for other parts of Cornwall). This has also been ignored with the glib response that:
"As we are now one Cornwall there is not a good reason to impose artificial boundaries on car parking."
This is a truly terrible response in my view. Of course we are now operating in a single council environment, but that is no reason to have a centralised 'one size fits all' view of parking. There are many people who travel extensively around the North Cornwall area who do not need or want to have a very expensive ticket that entitles them to park for free in Helston or St Ives - and I am sure that there are people from down West who feel the same about parking in Bude or Saltash. What on earth is wrong with the concept of offering regional parking permits?
The only concession that I can see has been to extend the single car park permit to allow a driver to nominate up to four car parks with charges being based on the most expensive of the four. The minimum charge for such a permit will be £550 per year sticking to the cheapest car parks. If you ant to use more than four car parks then the annual cross Cornwall ticket will cost £825 a year.
So what has happened to the promise made by Cllr Wallis on Radio Cornwall when I questioned him about the North Cornwall Rover Ticket? That ticket is currently £190 per year. On Laurence Reed's phone in, Andrew Wallis promised that a similar ticket would continue to be available and it would cost around £200-£220 per year. Of this there is not a sign in this report. You can read my blog on the day that he made that promise here.
So full marks to Andrew Wallis for the openness of this consultation, but please could he explain what has happened to his promise to retain the cheap Rover Ticket?
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